Sauron

A Maia of Aulë

The Valaquenta says that in his beginning Sauron was one of the Maiar of Aulë, the Smith, and learned much of his lore. He was drawn to Melkor, who became Morgoth, and became the greatest of his servants: he had a part in all of Morgoth's deeds, and was less evil than his master only in that for a long time he served another and not himself.¹

Elrond put it in a sentence at the Council in Rivendell.⁸

For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.

In Tolkien's late notes on the motives of the characters of the Silmarillion, the difference between the two is drawn more sharply. Morgoth wanted to destroy, or to have nothing exist except as part of himself. Sauron loved order and coordination, and hated confusion and waste; what corrupted him was that he came to want that order imposed by his own will.⁹

Lieutenant of Angband

In the wars of Beleriand Sauron was Morgoth's chief captain, a sorcerer of dreadful power and a master of shadows and phantoms. After the Battle of Sudden Flame he took Finrod's tower on the isle of Tol Sirion and filled it with werewolves, and it was called Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the Isle of Werewolves. Like the other Maiar he could take what shape he chose: he fought Huan in the form of the greatest of his werewolves, and fled from the isle as a vampire.^10,2

It was Sauron who snared Gorlim with a phantom of his wife, betraying the outlaws of Barahir. It was Sauron who took Finrod Felagund and Beren prisoner and sang against Finrod in a contest of songs of power, and won. And it was Sauron whom Lúthien and the hound Huan overthrew on his own bridge, forcing him to yield the isle to Lúthien.²

When the host of the Valar overthrew Morgoth at the end of the age, Sauron took on a fair form again and abased himself before Eönwë, herald of Manwë. Eönwë had no authority to judge one of his own order and bade him go to Valinor. Sauron would not, and hid himself in Middle-earth.³

Annatar, the Lord of Gifts

In the Second Age Sauron took Mordor for his own and began to build the Dark Tower, Barad-dûr. Then he came among the Elves in fair form, calling himself Annatar, the Lord of Gifts. Gil-galad and Elrond distrusted him and would not admit him to Lindon, but the smiths of Eregion, led by Celebrimbor, received him gladly, for he offered them knowledge.^3,5

Under his teaching they made the Rings of Power. Celebrimbor made the Three alone, and Sauron had no part in them. Then, about the year 1600, Sauron forged in secret the One Ring in the fire of Orodruin, to rule all the others, and put into it a great part of his own power.^3,5,11

As soon as he put it on, the Elves perceived him and knew his purpose, and they took off their rings. Sauron, enraged, demanded the rings, and when they would not give them up, made war. Eregion was destroyed in 1697 and Celebrimbor was slain; Unfinished Tales says Sauron had his body borne before his army on a pole as a banner. Elrond escaped with the survivors and founded Rivendell, and with the help of a fleet from Númenor Sauron was driven out of Eriador.^3,5,12

He gave nine of the rings to kings of Men, and they became the Nazgûl, his most terrible servants.^3,5

The Rings of Power

Sauron recovered sixteen of the rings of the smiths of Eregion, and gave them out to the other peoples, to bind them to his will through the One. He could never take the Three, which the Elves hid and did not use while he held the One.^3,5

Seven went to the kings of the Dwarves. They did not work on them as he intended: the Dwarves were made to resist domination, and the only power the rings had over them was to kindle their hearts with greed for gold, from which much evil came. Four of the Seven were consumed by dragons, and Sauron recovered the rest; the last was taken from Thráin in the dungeons of Dol Guldur.^13,3

Nine went to Men, and Men proved easy to ensnare. Those who wore them became mighty kings, sorcerers and warriors, but in the end they faded into wraiths, invisible save to those who wore a ring themselves, wholly under the dominion of the One. They were the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, and their chief was the Witch-king who would rule Angmar and Minas Morgul.^3,14

Númenor

In 3261 Ar-Pharazôn, the proud king of Númenor, landed at Umbar with so great a host that Sauron's armies fled. Sauron came down and submitted, and was taken to Númenor as a hostage. Within a few years he was the king's chief counsellor.^15,5

He turned the Númenóreans to the worship of Melkor, raised a temple in Armenelos where men were sacrificed, and persuaded the king that he could take the everlasting life of the Undying Lands by force. When Ar-Pharazôn's fleet broke the Ban of the Valar in 3319, Númenor was cast down into the sea.^15,5

Sauron's body was destroyed in the ruin. His spirit fled back to Mordor, and he made himself a new form; but he could never again take on a shape that seemed fair to Men. From then on his form was terrible.^15,16

The Last Alliance

In 3429 Sauron attacked Gondor, the realm Elendil's sons had founded, and took Minas Ithil. Gil-galad and Elendil made the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, defeated his army on the plain of Dagorlad and besieged Barad-dûr for seven years.^3,5

In 3441 Sauron came out and fought them on the slopes of Orodruin. Gil-galad and Elendil were both slain as they overthrew him, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father's sword. Sauron's body was again destroyed, and his spirit fled.^3,5,8

The Necromancer

Because the Ring was not destroyed, Sauron was not ended. About a thousand years into the Third Age a shadow fell on Greenwood the Great, and it began to be called Mirkwood. An evil power had made its home on the hill of Dol Guldur, and the Wise did not know what it was; many thought it one of the Nazgûl. In The Hobbit it is called only the Necromancer.^4,17,3

In 2063 Gandalf went to Dol Guldur, and the Necromancer withdrew into the East, and there was the Watchful Peace for nearly four hundred years. He returned in 2460 with greater strength. In 2850 Gandalf went in again, secretly, and found that the Necromancer was Sauron. In 2941 the White Council drove him out at last, but he was ready to go: he went back to Mordor, and in 2951 declared himself openly and began to rebuild Barad-dûr.^4,3

The War of the Ring

From Barad-dûr Sauron made war by other people's hands. He sent the Nazgûl after the Ring in 3018, first to search the Gladden Fields and then north to the Shire. He drew the Haradrim and the Easterlings into his alliance, and the Corsairs of Umbar.^6,18

Through the palantír of Minas Ithil, which he had taken long before, he reached the masters of the other two Seeing-stones within reach. Saruman, who had looked too deep into the stone of Orthanc, was ensnared and became his ally while believing himself a rival. Denethor, Steward of Gondor, kept his will, but Sauron showed him only what fed despair, and he burned himself on a pyre in the Hallows of Minas Tirith.^19,20

His great stroke fell on Minas Tirith in March 3019, with the Witch-king at the head of an army out of Minas Morgul. It failed: the Rohirrim came at dawn, the Witch-king was destroyed by Éowyn and Merry, and Aragorn came up the river with the fleet of Umbar. Sauron still had his armies, and they were more than enough. What he did not have was the Ring.^21,22

When the captains of the West marched to the Black Gate, Sauron sent out his Lieutenant, the Mouth of Sauron, with Frodo's mail-coat and Sam's sword as proof that the spy was taken. He believed that the challenger at his gate had the Ring, or was waiting for it, and he emptied his land against them.²³

The Eye

In The Lord of the Rings Sauron never appears. He is the Eye that Frodo sees in Galadriel's Mirror, rimmed with fire and searching; the presence that looks out of the palantír at Pippin and at Aragorn; the Black Hand that Gollum says has only four fingers but is enough.^24,19,25

His mistake was the one Gandalf counted on. Sauron measured everything by desire for power, and the one thing that never entered his mind was that anyone who had the Ring might want to destroy it. So when Aragorn showed himself in the palantír, Sauron hurried his attack and emptied his own land, and looked everywhere but at the two hobbits crossing it.^8,26,23

Gandalf told the captains what the destruction of the Ring would mean for him.²⁶

He will lose the best part of the strength that was native to him in his beginning, and all that was made or begun with that power will crumble, and he will be maimed for ever, becoming a mere spirit of malice that gnaws itself in the shadows, but cannot again grow or take shape.

When the Ring went into the fire, Barad-dûr fell, and before the Black Gate the captains saw a vast shape of shadow rise over Mordor, reaching out a great hand towards them; then a wind took it, and it was blown away, and passed.⁷

How Tolkien made him

Sauron began as a cat. In the earliest version of the tale of Beren and Lúthien, the lord of the dark hall where Beren was held was Tevildo, Prince of Cats; only in later rewritings did the part pass to Sauron.²⁷

The Necromancer of The Hobbit is a villain glimpsed in passing. When Tolkien began the sequel, Gandalf told the Council of Elrond that the Necromancer had been Sauron himself, and the two stories became one.^17,8

In a letter of 1951 Tolkien explained the Ring through Sauron: he had let a great part of his own native power pass into it, so that while it existed his power endured, and if it were destroyed his power would be gone.¹¹

Interpretation That makes Sauron the book's portrait of power that cannot imagine its own renunciation. Everything he does is calculated, and the one move he cannot calculate is the one that undoes him.^26,11

Timeline

1. S.A. c. 1000Sauron settles in Mordor and begins to build Barad-dûr.⁵
2. S.A. c. 1200He comes to the Elves as Annatar. Lindon refuses him; Eregion receives him.⁵
3. S.A. c. 1600He forges the One Ring.⁵
4. S.A. 1693–1701War of the Elves and Sauron. Eregion destroyed; Sauron driven from Eriador.⁵
5. S.A. 3262Ar-Pharazôn takes him to Númenor.⁵
6. S.A. 3319The Downfall of Númenor. His body is destroyed.⁵
7. S.A. 3429He attacks Gondor and takes Minas Ithil.⁵
8. S.A. 3441Overthrown by Gil-galad and Elendil. Isildur takes the Ring.⁵
9. T.A. c. 1050–1100A shadow falls on Greenwood; Dol Guldur is found to hold a power the Wise take for one of the Nazgûl: the Necromancer.⁴
10. T.A. 2063Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur; Sauron withdraws to the East.⁴
11. T.A. 2460He returns to Dol Guldur.⁴
12. T.A. 2850Gandalf discovers that the Necromancer is Sauron.⁴
13. T.A. 2941The White Council drives him from Dol Guldur.⁴
14. T.A. 2951He declares himself openly in Mordor.⁴
15. T.A. 3019, 25 Mar.The Ring is destroyed, and Sauron with it.⁶

Names

Questions readers ask

What did Sauron look like?

The books never show him. In a letter of 1963 Tolkien wrote that after the Downfall the form he took was that of a man of more than human stature, but not gigantic, and terrible to look on.¹⁶

Why did destroying the Ring destroy him?

Because he had put so much of his own power into it. Tolkien explained in 1951 that while the Ring existed his power endured, even when he did not have it, and that if it were unmade his power would go with it.^11,26

Was Sauron the same kind of being as Gandalf?

Yes. Both were Maiar, spirits who came into the world with the Valar. Sauron served Aulë in the beginning, Gandalf dwelt in the gardens of Lórien and learned from Nienna. Gandalf came to Middle-earth forbidden to match Sauron's power with power; Sauron's whole history is the use of it.^1,30,4

On screen

Where the best-known adaptation departs from the books. Nothing in this section is evidence for the books themselves.

Jackson's films show Sauron as a great flaming eye set on top of Barad-dûr. In the book the Eye is what the characters perceive of his will, in the Mirror and the palantír; he is never described as a flaming eye set on a spire.^31,24,32

The Hobbit films show Galadriel, Elrond and Saruman fighting the Necromancer and the Nine at Dol Guldur. In the book the White Council's attack is told in a sentence, and Gandalf is away from the dwarves only while it happens.^33,34,4

Sources

Citations name the chapter rather than the page, so they work in any edition. The colour of each note shows what kind of source it is.

• Published story The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as Tolkien published them.
• Appendices Tolkien's own appendices to The Lord of the Rings.
• Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and Tolkien's late writings on the Elder Days, assembled by Christopher Tolkien from his father's papers.
• Tolkien's letters Tolkien explaining his own work. Authoritative on intent, but private and sometimes provisional.
• Drafts Earlier versions Tolkien changed or abandoned. Evidence of how the story grew, not of what is true in it.
• Adaptation Films and other adaptations. Never evidence for the books.

1. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Valaquenta”, “Of the Enemies”
2. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 19, “Of Beren and Lúthien”
3. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”
4. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Third Age”
5. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Second Age”
6. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix B, “The Great Years”
7. Published story The Return of the King, Book VI, ch. 4, “The Field of Cormallen”
8. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 2, “The Council of Elrond”
9. Edited posthumously Morgoth's Ring (The History of Middle-earth, vol. 10), “Notes on motives in the Silmarillion”
10. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, ch. 18, “Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin”
11. Tolkien's letters Letter 131, to Milton Waldman (c. 1951)
12. Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Two, IV, “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”
13. Appendices The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, III, “Durin's Folk”
14. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book I, ch. 2, “The Shadow of the Past”
15. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Akallabêth”
16. Tolkien's letters Letter 246, to Eileen Elgar (1963)
17. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 1, “An Unexpected Party”
18. Edited posthumously Unfinished Tales, Part Three, IV, “The Hunt for the Ring”
19. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 11, “The Palantír”
20. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 7, “The Pyre of Denethor”
21. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 4, “The Siege of Gondor”
22. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 6, “The Battle of the Pelennor Fields”
23. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 10, “The Black Gate Opens”
24. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 7, “The Mirror of Galadriel”
25. Published story The Two Towers, Book IV, ch. 3, “The Black Gate is Closed”
26. Published story The Return of the King, Book V, ch. 9, “The Last Debate”
27. Drafts The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two (The History of Middle-earth, vol. 2), “The Tale of Tinúviel”
28. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, Appendix, “Elements in Quenya and Sindarin Names”
29. Published story The Two Towers, Book III, ch. 1, “The Departure of Boromir”
30. Edited posthumously The Silmarillion, “Valaquenta”, “Of the Maiar”
31. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) to The Return of the King (2003)
32. Published story The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, ch. 10, “The Breaking of the Fellowship”
33. Adaptation Peter Jackson's film trilogy (2001–2003), The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
34. Published story The Hobbit, ch. 19, “The Last Stage”